Google Advertising ID

The GAID is Android's device-level advertising ID, and unlike Apple's it is still on by default in 2026.

GAID stands for Google Advertising ID. It plays the same role on Android that the IDFA plays on iPhone: a resettable string that connects an ad click to an install or a purchase. The difference is that Android never shipped an ATT-style prompt. Google spent years building the Privacy Sandbox as a replacement, wound most of it down in late 2025, and kept the GAID in place.

Say 100 Android users click your ad and install. In most cases you get the GAID for all 100, so you can match every install back to the ad set, the way iOS worked before 2021. Put your Android campaign report next to your iOS one; the Android side usually has far more person-level matches, which is why the two platforms rarely read the same.

Default on does not mean permanent. A user can reset the GAID or switch on Delete advertising ID in Settings, which returns a string of zeros just like an iPhone that declined, so a slice of your Android audience is untrackable too.

Android still hands you the ID; treat that as a reprieve, not a promise.